Film Screening: Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (+ Director Q&A)

Soundtrack to a Coup d’État rewrites the Cold War episode that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the UN Security Council in protest against the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. After the admission to the UN of sixteen newly independent African countries causes a political earthquake, the US State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup.

The screening is followed by a panel discussion with Director Johan Grimonprez, Siyabonga Njica (Cambridge) Nasheed Qamar Faruqi (filmmaker/writer) and Orphy Robinson MBE (jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer), chaired by Maite Conde(Cambridge).

Organised in collaboration with UCL